The present invention relates to an apparatus for testing and encoding contactless smart cards, and more specifically to a machine for automatically testing and encoding a continuous stream of smart cards for mechanical and electrical functionality, durability, visual aspects, initialization and personalization.
Smart cards are being used in an increasingly wide variety of applications. One such application is the use of smart cards to provide credit/debit payment capability for mass transit users. Smart cards have found applications in many other areas including pay phones, health care, banking, identity and access, pay television, gaming, metering and vending. Retail businesses utilize smart cards to encourage return business, such as the use of smart cards to obtain a discount on merchandise or to gain points that are redeemable for cash or merchandise.
Smart cards generally include one or more integrated circuit (xe2x80x9cICxe2x80x9d) located within the body of the card to receive and store information. The ICs can be read-only or have read/write capability. Reusable smart cards with read/write capability allow users to add time or value to payment-type smart cards, thus avoiding the inconvenience of having to carry currency, or, in the case of mass transit, exact change, for each usage. The smart card will also contain interface means, which will depend on whether the smart card is a contact-type or contactless smart card. Contactless cards will contain an antenna structure for communication with an RF source, and typically include circuitry adapted for deriving operating power from the RF signal.
Regardless of the application of the smart card, the intention is that the user will carry the card with them wherever he or she goes. Further, the smart cards that are used for payment may be expected to contain value for uses for a long period of time. Smart cards containing data, particularly medical information, are expected to be capable of proper function for years. Since these cards are typically carried in a pocket or wallet, they can be subjected to many different stresses, such as bending and flexing, which could potentially render the card non-functional. Thus, lifetime and durability are important considerations in designing and manufacturing a smart card.
During the manufacturing. process for smart cards, batch inspection and testing are performed to ensure that an acceptable percentage of the smart cards are operational. A typical testing method includes sampling smart cards of a production batch to verify read/write capability of the integrated circuits. Manual inspection is performed on the sample batch to verify print quality and other surface features of the smart cards. The testing procedure may also be partially automated. The smart cards are individually sent through a testing apparatus which writes to and reads from each smart card. The card then passes through an inspection station where a visual spot check is performed on the smart card. The process is repeated for each card of a production batch of smart cards.
Such testing procedures are time and labor intensive. Sampling and manual or visual test procedures are limited in effectiveness and present disadvantages of bottlenecks in the production line, particularly around peak production periods. Specifically, the current testing methods are limited in throughput and cannot provide a testing process at production speeds. A further disadvantage of these testing methods is resulting inconsistencies in shipped quality inherent in subjective human inspection. The current testing methods also do not provide a physical integrity test to ensure that the smart cards can withstand the bending and flexing that occurs with everyday use. Thus, for maximum card quality at a lower per-unit cost, and to ensure a reasonable lifetime for the cards, the manufacturer is in need of an automated testing procedure that provides a competitive advantage of accurate and thorough testing of smart cards at production speeds within one integrated testing apparatus.
It is an advantage of the present invention to provide improved production methods for detecting and accelerating smart card defects including print, lamination, positional correctness of integrated circuit chips, antenna, signature panels and magnetic stripes, as well as the functionality of the integrated circuits.
Another advantage of the present invention to provide automated comprehensive smart card testing of every smart card at full production speeds including physical integrity tests of flexing and bending, and operational tests of read/write verification of each smart card.
Still another advantage of the present invention is to provide automated surface inspection of every smart card of a production run utilizing a fully automated optical testing at high resolution and production speeds.
Yet another advantage is of the present invention is to improve productivity and lower per-unit costs as well as to provide a competitive advantage of faster turnaround times in the production of smart cards by providing a serial testing line that performs a variety of tests simultaneously on a series of smart cards.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to program or encode smart cards with various applications including stored value, personalization data such as serial number, date, time, and picture, and period pass data for periods including daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. All applications are registered, i.e. database stored, locally or at a central computer system for security and retrieval.
In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the contactless smart card (xe2x80x9cCSCxe2x80x9d) high production encoding machine (xe2x80x9cHPEMxe2x80x9d) of the exemplary embodiment is an automated smart card tester and encoder. In the exemplary embodiment, the contactless smart cards are bulk loaded into an automatic feeding magazine and fed into the encoding xe2x80x9cbackbonexe2x80x9d of the HPEM. The backbone of the HPEM is a testing path or line consisting of a series of testing positions for conducting read/write, optical, and structural tests of a continuous line of smart cards. Each card is immediately preceded by a first card and is immediately followed by a third card. Thus, multiple cards are tested simultaneously along the testing path.
In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a card is fed into a first testing position from a feeding magazine. The first test position writes a first test data pattern to the smart card. The card is flexed in one direction as it moves around a roller by means of a transport belt. The smart card proceeds into a second test position wherein the test data is read from the card to verify the physical integrity and the functionality of the IC circuits in the smart card. The HPEM then flexes the card a second time in another direction and feeds the card into a third test position. A second test data string is written to the card and/or the card is encoded with a desired application. In the exemplary embodiment, the card is then optically inspected for top surface and bottom surface defects in a fourth and fifth test position, respectively. Shadow illumination is provided during the optical inspection testing process to verify internal features of the contactless smart card including the loop antenna and IC circuits. The card then moves into position for a final read test to verify that the second test data string or application information is correctly stored and is retrieved from memory.
In the exemplary embodiment, the HPEM includes encoding capability for storing a variety of applications on each smart card in accordance with the intended use of each smart card and utilizing an appropriate communication protocol. Encoding is performed at either the final read or write test position, or alternatively, the HPEM includes an additional encoding position in the test path.
Upon completion of the read/write, flexion, and optical testing, each card passes through a printing position. The cards that pass the read/write, flexing, and optical tests are marked to indicate that the card has passed inspection. For example, a color coded dot may indicate a pass or a rejected card. In the exemplary embodiment, rejected cards may be marked with a reason for rejection. The printer of the exemplary embodiment also has the capability to personalize the smart cards, i.e. with a picture ID correlated to information on smart card. Finally, the cards that have passed all of the tests of the test line are stacked in magazines, bins, or blister packs. Rejected cards are sorted into a separate magazine.
Flexing of the cards during the automated test of the exemplary embodiment includes a concave flexion and a convex flexion. The HPEM provides card flexion by forcing the cards around rotating wheels in a belt transport. The flexion test of each card simulates everyday card use. For example, a card that is carried in a wallet undergoes flexing and bending as the user sits and stands. The flexion test ensures that each smart card continues to receive and send information after physical manipulations of each card.
The reading and writing tests of the HPEM are contactless RF communications with each card, i.e., reading and writing to the integrated chip circuit. In the exemplary embodiment, the read and write tests are performed at different ranges. First a functional read/write antenna is used in the automated test to write to a card. The card is flexed, and a second functional read/write antenna reads the test data from the smart card. Following functional read/write testing, long range and short range testing is performed. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a first range antenna, set to long range, writes to the card. The long range write is performed after the card is flexed for a second time. The long range is adjustable from 50 to 100 millimeters. After the write procedure, the card is exposed to illumination for optical testing and inspection of the card surfaces. A second range antenna, set to short range, is then used to read from the card. The short range is adjustable from 5 to 20 millimeters. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the long range antenna is adjustable from 50 to 100 mm. The adjustability ranges of the short and long range antennas is dependent upon the requirements of the test system, and the ranges of the exemplary embodiment are illustrative of one embodiment of the invention.
The smart card testing apparatus of the exemplary embodiment provides production rate testing of smart cards by serially feeding the smart cards through the test path. The smart cards move through various testing positions allowing simultaneous read/write, flexing and optical inspection of a continuous line of cards. The transport means includes combinations of the input belt and flexion drive, gravity, friction, and force from adjacent cards. The HPEM of the exemplary embodiment relies upon friction for high accuracy alignment that is achieved between the cards and the RF and optical testing mechanisms. Accurate alignment is required for RF and optical testing. The cards are aligned and self-positioned with respect to the testing positions since each card touches adjacent cards in the line. The last two cards in the testing position line are stopped by a set of pins. When the pins are released the cards moves forward by one testing position. This process allows the motors driving the belts to run continually and not be turned on and off as in prior art systems. Therefore, the speed of the apparatus is increased.
In the exemplary embodiment, all the memory locations of the smart card are changed to xe2x80x9czerosxe2x80x9d during the first test data write, and to all xe2x80x9conesxe2x80x9d during the second test data write. These test data strings change each of the memory locations from one state to another during the test for the purpose of fully exercising each memory location. Other embodiments may alternate ones and zeros for the first test data string, and then invert the sequence for the second test data string. Testing algorithms of reading and writing to memory are well known in the art, and any appropriate read/write testing method may be applied.
The exemplary embodiment of the present invention performs a variety of optical tests on each smart card. One optical test consists of a comparison to graphics and printing on each card surface to intended images. A second test is a shadow test wherein a light is applied to one side of the card and the shadows produced by the internal chip and antenna loop are observed on the other side of the card utilizing a camera. A typical defect that can be detected by the shadow test is where an antenna loop is too close to the side of the card.
The HPEM of the exemplary embodiment is constructed primarily of plastic in order to reduce interference and xe2x80x9cstrangexe2x80x9d antenna fields within the device that may develop as a result of metallic parts. Since multiple cards are simultaneously RF tested, interference between the smart card readers must be reduced as much as possible.
In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the HPEM tracks a defective card by its location in the transport and rejects the card at the end of the assembly by diverting it into a xe2x80x9cbad cardxe2x80x9d bin. A card is easily tracked because the cards enter the test line serially. The exemplary embodiment also utilizes sensors at key positions along the test line to track each smart card and to ensure accurate positioning before a test commences.
An alternate embodiment of the present invention utilizes card serial numbers as an additional means to track and identify each smart card in the test line. The HPEM includes components, such as a bar code readers and/or optical character recognition (xe2x80x9cOCRxe2x80x9d) readers, for reading printed serial numbers on the cards. The printed serial numbers may be correlated to a permanent electronic serial number of the cards or chip set internal to the cards. The cards can be tracked as they proceed through the test sequence of the HPEM and can be sorted in various ways since the controller can keep track of the cards by the serial number. Tracking serial numbers also allows cards of various types and configurations to be tested within one test batch. Once a card enters the test line, specific optical tests, read/write tests, and final sorting are performed on the card depending upon the serial number of the card. This capability is useful in a manufacturing plant that produces multiple types of smart cards.